India delivers neat snub to China in UN election

United Nations: India delivered a neat snub to an overbearing China to win a seat on the Joint Inspection Unit, the UN's oversight body, for a five-year term starting 1 January 2013. In a straight contest India's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, A Gopinathan, defeated Zhang Yan, the Chinese ambassador to India, by 106 votes to 77.

China, which has held the Asian seat without a break for the last 10 years, was expected to step aside in favour of another country from the same geographical region, as per convention. Surprisingly, China insisted on a third term and put up Zhang. New Delhi decided to stay in the contest and the resultant vote is a neat snub to China's overbearing posture in international politics, particularly with nations from the region.

Zhang, was also in the news a few weeks ago, when he reportedly asked a journalist in New Delhi to "shut up" when queried about cartographic aggression on India by commercial entities in Beijing.

India has served only once on the JIU in the period 1968 to 1977.

Japan is the only other Asian country on the powerful body that has the responsibility for the oversight of the UN.

Observers see the direct face-off between India and China, one of the 'Big Five' on the United Nations Security Council as ''historic'', with both nations vying for international clout in the political and economic arenas.